Love, Laughter, and Life

Adventures With a Book Lover


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Overwhelmed

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Curlers and all, love my mom! 

It’s been a while.

Life is sometimes overwhelming. After Mama died in May, days became chaotic, stressful, and anxiety-filled. Nights were often sleepless, filled with memories of 56 years with Mama or constantly making to-do lists. Grieving took a back seat to facing and surviving each day.

How was I to know that cooking beets would remind me of canning beets with my mom? I was always the beet peeler. Or that walking on the stepping stones she and dad made years ago with our names on top would take me right back to our Wapato home?  Or how my wedding anniversary would bring me to tears because my mama always remembered our big day? She painstakingly made my wedding dress and several bridesmaid dresses. I didn’t realize that, now, every time I drive to the apartment of my grands, I would have to pass the Cottage where she passed away. The memories keep her close to my heart, but that heart is full of aches and pains.

Each day is new to the process. All four of our parents have passed on to Heaven. They are having a great time. But that doesn’t stop me from missing them. We are now the oldest and the NEXT to go (in the natural order of things, not counting for surprises). And we both have the hope and faith that we will see them again when it’s our time to go.

“Any-who.” As my mother-in-law always said. “That’s life.”

But life takes it out of you sometimes.

I’m back. Slowly and steadily, taking one day at a time. Still missing Mama.

Life altering circumstances or situations do, well, alter your life. Have you had any life events that deeply impacted your life? How did you survive and continue on living your life?


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Celebrating Moms

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There are moms, and there are MOMS.

And I’m not just talking about women who give birth to babies and become mothers. Well, yes, those sorts of moms.

But also, moms who have adopted, claimed, or otherwise taken in extra babies, children, and adults and made them a part of the family. Moms who have mothered others through tough times or through career choices. Moms who have taught more than just their own offspring, baked cookies for the neighborhood kids, shared/traded hand-me-downs and kid-paraphernalia, or tucked in all the littles who happened to be around at nap or bedtime. Moms who embrace the friendless, welcome in the newcomers, stand up for the picked-on. No nonsense moms who tell it like it is, teach how it should be, and show by example how to do it.

Moms not limited to birth or adoption or choice, but also by caring. Moms of fur babies, next-door-neighbors, or troops, clubs, or teams. And those dads. Dads who mother their children in so many ways, again by choice or circumstances.

Moms. All of them.

Thank you, moms (mothers, mamas, mommys), for all you have done, are doing, and will do to mother us! We love you!

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This Mother’s Day, heaven has two new mothers. My mommy, Bonnie, passed away on May 7, and is up there rejoicing in Heaven with Jesus, daddy, and all of her loved ones. My other mommy, Carole (Kevin’s mama), passed away last June 7. I’m sure she was ready to welcome mom with a cup of coffee and lots of catching up. This was our first Mother’s Day without our moms. We be sad. But up there? The celebrating just jumped up a notch!

While our Mother’s Day took a turn towards the side of mourning, and we have mom-sized holes in our hearts, we KNOW we will see them again when it’s our turn to go. No more tears, pain, broken and failing bodies. Just love, joy, and reunion.

Peace to all who miss their mothers.